There’s no such thing as a surprise anymore in the smartphone industry. There are simply too many hands in the pie and too much hype surrounding big smartphone launches. As a result, there’s no way that all the people involved with building flagship smartphones can keep things secret. It’s just not going to happen.
Leaks also tend to follow the same pattern time and time again. When it comes to Apple and its upcoming new iPhone models, the first details always come from plugged-in Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kui, who now works for TF International Securities. He has multiple contacts deep in Apple’s supply chain, and the information he gets from them is almost always accurate. Then, a few months later, schematics for the unreleased iPhone models are stolen off of Foxconn’s servers in China. Third-party accessory makers use these files to build protective cases that are ready in time for release, and graphic designers use them to mock up accurate renders of upcoming iPhone models. That’s the phase we’re in right now, and a recently released video gets up close and personal with Apple’s new overhauled iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max design.
Despite the fact that Apple’s upcoming iPhone models will carry a new number in their names, they won’t introduce a new design. iPhone users had been trained to expect a new iPhone design every other year, with “S” upgrades in between that introduce new marquee features alongside big performance improvements. But that’s not how Apple operates anymore. Beginning in 2016 with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple now uses the same design for three consecutive years instead of two. So in 2019, we’re going to get new iPhone 11 models with the same general design as the iPhone XS from last year and the iPhone X from back in 2017.
As we’ve seen in countless leaks at this point, there are a few main design differences that we’ll see when Apple announces the iPhone 11 series in September. The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max will both feature a large square camera bump on the back that houses a new triple-lens camera system. The iPhone 11R, or whatever Apple ends up calling it, will sport a dual-lens rear camera that’s still contained within a square camera bump. Also new is the mute switch on the side of the phone, which will now be a small round switch like the one on Apple’s newest iPad tablets.
A new video published recently by a YouTube channel called Techy Paradise does a good job of mocking up the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max design. For example, here’s a great shot of the new rear camera array and the updated mute switch design:
The video does make a couple of big mistakes, however. First, it suggests that the iPhone 11 series phones might have an in-display fingerprint reader. They definitely will not. On top of that, the video shows a black area surrounding the triple-lens camera on the silver iPhone 11 model, as you can see at the top of this post. According to information from Ming-Chi Kuo, however, the iPhone 11 series will actually have a camera array that’s color-matched to the back of the phones. It’ll look more like this earlier render:
It’s still a fantastic video despite those errors, however, and it does a great job of showing us Apple’s leaked iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max design from every angle.
